Text 35716, 280 rader
Skriven 2006-08-02 09:18:02 av Roy Witt (1:1/22)
  Kommentar till text 35642 av Carol Shenkenberger (6:757/1)
Ärende: IQ Test
===============
02 Aug 06 17:36, Carol Shenkenberger wrote to Roy Witt:

 CS> *** Quoting Roy Witt from a message to Carol Shenkenberger ***

 CS>> Yes.  Most of my needs have been small stuff and don's friends are
 CS>> involved.  Roofer job though?  I wanted to be sure.  Paid the right
 CS>> price for a good job.

 RW>> My needs were small too...a faucet swapped out, the back yard
 RW>> cleaned after the painters and roofers got done, etc...I think the
 RW>> yard cleanu was a rip-off, as it wasn't any better looking than when
 RW>> they started. That's why I balked at $85/hr to replace one faucet. I
 RW>> would have been happier with a flat fee and when I didn't get it, I
 RW>> opted to find my o handyman.

 CS> Works for me.  Then again, we dont use a plumber to do that.

I wouldn't have, if I were in California...although it takes less than 24
hours to drive it, however, the cost of fuel made that prohibitive. I've
never had to call in anyone to do what I can do myself.

 CS> Don's a sideline handyman who does that for others.

When I was looking to go into business for myself, Nancy suggested that I
do that, since there's nothing I can't fix. In her eyes anyway. :o)

 CS> Phil seems to come from a state with some laws that make it hard to
 CS> do such.

That's what happens when the liberals get in power...can't do anything
without a permit for this or for that.

 CS>   Virginia hasnt been that restrictive.

Neither is Texas, but some places in Texas are. i.e. the Guadalupe River
runs through a lot of counties on it's way from west Texas to the gulf, or
another river that does go to the gulf. In one town, not too far up the
road from here, they've got two rivers, one that starts from a spring in
their city limits and empties into the Gaudalupe, still within the city
limits. It's popular for the boys to sit on the bank and offer up a
'jello shooter', if the gals will bare their breasts. They can't do
anything about it on the Guadalupe (state right of way), but they've
passed an ordinance that makes it a ticketable crime on the Comal river.

The ordinance was supposed to chase the college kids off the Comal and
onto the Guadalupe, but the Guadalupe doesn't have the flow it had,
because of a drought. If you tube the Guadalupe today (very popular here),
your butt will drag on the rocks, while playing in the spring fed river is
prefered because it's got plenty of water. That city is 30-35 miles or
more from SA, but this made the news, TV and Radio. It was even a talk
show subject on Monday, right after the ordinance began to be inforced...

 CS> When we split a pipe though and had to have it reworked totally, we
 CS> paid something like 85$ an hour.  That was the one to the shower and
 CS> beyond anything we felt comfortable doing.  Also a tree root
 CS> situation causes fairly often rework on various things, which we
 CS> contract out.

One morning in San Diego I walked into the kitchen and noticed the tiled
floor was exceptionally warm. It's on a concrete slab and should have been
cold to my bare feet. A few days later there was warm water seeping
through the tile. The copper pipes to the kitchen and bathrooms were
imbedded in the concrete and the common problems of slabs breaking up
because of ground movement didn't pass up my house. I had someone come out
and replace all of the copper pipe from the water heater to the kitchen
and baths (ran it overhead). I also had to have a company who specialize
in water damage cleanup come out and pull up the carpet in the
adjoining living room and dry it. All of this didn't cost me a cent, as
the homeowners insurance I had paid for everything.

 CS> In Virgina, if it's legal to do yourself, it's legal to hire a
 CS> handyman for.

The same here and he must have a contractors license.

 CS>   Replacing toilets for example.  Don does ours and those he can do
 CS> within reason as a handyman. The home owner provides the 'second
 CS> person' to lift and hold things while Don knows how to do
 CS> the rest (and will then have his hands free to do it as well).

Around here, you need a permit to do anything, including replacing the
seal on a toilet base.

 CS> He does not touch electrical work and i think that requires a
 CS> certified electrician afterwards inspect it even if you 'do it
 CS> yourself' though I am sure some folks ignore that.  Having outlets
 CS> added is quite expensive but we've paid the going rate as needed.

I do my own electrical work. I wired a wharehouse to put my machine shop
in, 220v3p...I pulled permits, got permission from the Miramar base
commander (?) and when it came time to have the city inspect it, they said
it wasn't necessary. Don't know why I botherd to pull a permit. Even the
Fire Marshall wanted to know why I needed one. Does 'because the city says
I need one' ring a bell. He signed off his section of the permit without
hesitation.

 CS>> things. Harris Teeter (East coast) was better for that.

 RW>> I think they're all a matter of what sells in the area. The VONs in
 RW>> Mi Mesa didn't stock a lot of Italian food things, but they stocked
 RW>> a lot oriental products. Their clientel were almost all oriental.
 RW>> Meanwhile, the 'Italian' neighborhood where Nancy's mom and dad
 RW>> lived, there was little oriental and more Italian. There are very
 RW>> few orientals here an HEB still stocks some oriental products, but
 RW>> it's mostly what Texans e outside of their normal diets. Being a
 RW>> German community, there's lot's German sausage products, German
 RW>> Cheese products, etc...did I mention t I 'hate' the German diet? My
 RW>> preference is Mexican and Italian dishes.

 CS> LOL!  I'd be looking for the Asian one but not mind at all what else
 CS> I found there when browsing for fodder ;-).  Oddly, I'm not that much
 CS> experienced with 'mexican' although I use aspects of it gleaned from
 CS> 3 years in Texas and 6 in San Diego.

If you perchance get to go through San Diego on your way home, stop into
the Miramar Cafe' (it's across from Miramar Base' north or west gate on
Miramar Road behind Wendys) and order their Huevos Rancheros. It's the
best I've ever had and you can't find anything like it in Texas. If
there's a short mexican lady behind the counter, tell her 'Hi' from Roy. I
made it there for breakfast every Saturday morning for I don't know how
many years. And on any day of the week that I was in the area too. Nancy
and I used to go there often for lunch, as my shop was just up the road a
ways and she worked in the area.

 CS> Always use Mexican Comino (whole) and ignore the ground cumin for
 CS> example.

The restaurant I mention above was previously owned by friends and Jackie
offered to give me the recipe' for the ranchero sauce they used on those
huevos. I didn't take it, as I was content to eat hers. The other day I
found an old cell phone and found her home phone number in its phone book.
I'm going to call her and see if she'll still give it away. I've tried and
tried to dupe that sauce, but not much luck with it. I did make one that I
liked, but it's a green ranchero sauce, not red.

 CS> Not much on Italian either, but some things I make are vaguely
 CS> related to that cookery (Not that an italian would notice it except
 CS> the dip used sometimes for bread).

When the kids all lived around us, they'd always ask Nancy to make her
spegetti for those occasions we got together. I got so used to eating it,
it was no big deal to me (of course I like it very much), but when the
kids came over, there were never any leftovers. I can come close to hers,
but I can't dupe it. She, of course, won't/can't tell me what's in it, as
she just puts it together from memory.

 CS>> (On bread products).  Thats related to additives.  I like mine
 CS>> additive free so freeze things if I cant eat it in a few days.

 RW>> No room for that. We have frozen biscuits and garlic toast, but
 RW>> that's about it.

q

 CS> Ah, I have a second chest freezer.  In fact, left one at home in
 CS> Norfolk for the renters (if it dies, I do not replace but they are
 CS> welcome to the use of it and wont be charged if it dies before we get
 CS> back.  It's going strong).  I have one here in Sasebo too.  If when
 CS> we get back, both are still good, we will sell the one now in Norfolk
 CS> for the same 50$ it cost us and keep the smaller but still BIG unit
 CS> we have here once it arrives.  The unit here is about 4ft long and a
 CS> bit less tall.  The one in Norfolk is 7ft long and 3.5ft tall.  Both
 CS> are money saving devices (cost about 80$ a year to run, save close to
 CS> 100$ a month on food bills due to being able to really use the hell
 CS> out of a good sale).

We had the same deal in San Diego, but then we always anticipated company
at any time of the year. Since we were moving away from everyone accept my
daughter and family in Houston, we didn't think we'd need it here. What we
do have is a side by side which serves us well.

 CS>> Normally, I just get less and shop oftener these days.  Then again,
 CS>> I make most of our bread in a breadmaker so buying baked goods is
 CS>> very rare for me, but warm bread just baked and still so warm you
 CS>> cant even slice it well, is a common event here.

 RW>> Well, I watched Alton Brown make bread last night...you're not
 RW>> suppose slice it for at least an hour after it comes out of the
 RW>> oven...of cour he didn't use a breadmaker, his was made from scratch
 RW>> and he used an o to make the dough rise, putting water in a 9x9x2
 RW>> glass baking dish und the bread dough, to give it plenty of moisture
 RW>> while the yeast did its thing. It must have tasted as good as it
 RW>> looked...

 CS> Yeah.  I never did get the hang though of making bread by hand.  I
 CS> had no one to teach me.  I'd probably manage ok if I had to do that
 CS> now, but it's so much easier to let the machine at least do the dough
 CS> bit right!

Yeah, that seems to be a lot of work. Although, Alton explained how to
treat the dough so it will kneed without a lot of work. He didn't use a
pan to bake it in either, just a cookie sheet. The best part of the show
was his explanation of how all of the ingredients work and what happens
when you do certain things and when.

 CS>   You can always remove that and oven bake it to get the
 CS> right shape.  Sounds like he made either french or italian 'crusty
 CS> white' there.  The shape is more the determiner for that one.

It looked like french bread, one big round on top lump. It looked so good,
I could almost smell it.

 RW>> I did that with the cantelope rinds and seeds last year. There
 RW>> weren't very many melons and they didn't get very big...I've always
 RW>> wanted to plant tomatos in a hanging basket and see how they do and
 RW>> last year, I that as well. They started out fine, but couldn't
 RW>> handle the Texas mid sun and croaked before I noticed that they were
 RW>> in distress. It's nice have the time to do all of this of course.
 RW>> :o)

 CS> True!  I had a 'garden' on a porch with containers til I had a real
 CS> yard in VB.  BTW the way to go it with hanging types for tomatoes is
 CS> only try cherry tomatoes and you have to use milk jugs for water with
 CS> aquarium tubing to feed them.  Looks ugly but works.

Hmmm, I never thought of the milk jug trick. I watered them by hand every
day.

 CS> You put an airstone at the pot end and put the bottle above the level
 CS> of the plant pot.  I found it too much hassle to keep the milk-jug
 CS> full when it was up high so after the experiment, took to more normal
 CS> floor containers.

The whole idea behind the hanging basket is to keep the ground bugs out of
the plant. I got the idea from a lady in San Diego who grew all of her
tomatos that way. She was successful at it.

 RW>>> carpenter. cannot live on Italian alone [sigh].

 CS>> I learned nothing from my mother really, other than 'TV dinners'
 CS>> which she seldom made.  Oh she isnt hopeless and I gather she cooks
 CS>> up a storm now, but her food was fairly plain but good for growing
 CS>> up on.

 RW>> Which reminds me of the week that Nancy was in the hospital for an
 RW>> operation and then recovery. Her mother came over and cooked. Of
 RW>> cours she cooked what she eats, which is steamed veggies, rice and
 RW>> chicken, necessarily combined. She's a horrible cook and so I made a
 RW>> crock pot chili, which lasted the entire week, as I was the only
 RW>> eating it. Mine bean-less chili, so nobody at work suffered very
 RW>> much...

 CS> ;-)  My Mom isnt 'bad' but cooking isnt her highlight.  *outstanding*
 CS> Mother though so we kids all love her.  I'm probably a bit over
 CS> critical of her cooking though since I've learned so much better out
 CS> on my own over the years.

 CS>> when that was harder to do than it is today.  The skills she did
 CS>> teach me are good ones, but cooking wasnt one of them.

 RW>> I recall you saying that she moved ya'll around quite a bit.

 CS> Yes.  Mom divorced Dad when I was 6 but she packed up us kids when I
 CS> was a hair under age 2 and moved from Bronxville NY to Miami Florida
 CS> one day when Dad was at work.  He came home to a silent house.  Hard
 CS> thing to do to a man but she had her reasons.  She then raised us
 CS> alone (1 sister, 1 brother, bith older than me but eldest is 3.5
 CS> years older than me).  Her way to make money ws to use her 'nest egg'
 CS> from when her parents died to buy a house, renovate it, then sell for
 CS> much more than buying cost and we;d live off the proceeds.

 CS> I grew up laying in tile floors, cutting wood with a mitre box to
 CS> make 'chair-rails' and ceiling moldings, setting windows, painting,
 CS> and was the family special for all wallpaper hanging (can even do the
 CS> inside of a curved medicine cabinet).  Lots of stuff.  My sister
 CS> learned plumbing and my brother did electrical work.  105 Deerwood
 CS> Drive, Charlottesville VA has the basement with a pool room, a huge
 CS> family room, and an apartment suitable for renting which we built
 CS> from a raw cement wall-less 2,400 square feet.  Bought at 35,000 and
 CS> sold for 81,000$ 2 years later.  Good wages for 1972.

 CS> --Snip, this message too long.  Second part will pick up.
 CS>                                        xxcarol

Gotcha...


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